Web servers are configured to receive web page requests a server up the requested web page for each client. Often, in order to provide the requested web page, some server processing using server-side data is performed in order to generate the web page. If the server receives a large number of web page requests, this processing can be quite demanding on the server.
In order to alleviate the server-side processing, the server may often cache web pages. In other words, the web page is generated in advance by the server using server-side data. Then, when request for the web page come in, the server does not have to regenerate the web page for each request. The server simply provides the cached version of the web page in response to every client request, at least until the caching of the web page ends. At some future point, the server might cache a later version of the web page, which may then be used to satisfy subsequent client requests for the web page. The frequency at which the cached web page is updated is typically less than the frequency at which client requests are received, often much less, thereby resulting in a processing savings.